News from the Dallas Holocaust Museum

Many of the works displayed in the Museum’s current special exhibition, Drawn to Action: The Life and Work of Arthur Szyk, have been loaned by two of our generous friends, but Gregg and Michelle Philipson have gone even further to donate two rare books to the Museum’s collection.  Ink and Blood: A Book of Drawings by Arthur Szyk and The New Order are compilations of Szyk’s intricate and colorful political cartoons. Both are on display now in the Museum’s special exhibits area.  The New Order was published in 1941, before the U.S. joined the war, and contains Szyk’s artistic call to action for the nation to stand up against Nazi tyranny. Polish-born Arthur Szyk considered his anti-Nazi cartoons to be “weapons of war.”  Ink and Blood was published in 1946, after WWII had ended. The illustration that inspired the title is the book’s first image. It is a drawing of Szyk drawing Adolf Hilter, who flows comically and belligerently from his pen. Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda chief, stands beside him holding a microphone. Prime Minister of Japan Hideki Tojo, Hermann Goering and Henrich Himmler are on the floor. Spanish dictator Francisco Franco is underneath Szyk’s desk. Other Axis leaders, including Benito Mussolini, are in the trash.

In this week’s parshah, Yithro, Moshe learns an important lesson in leadership from his father-in-law, who tells him that he cannot bear the burden of leadership alone.  Moses needed to be told that there are limits to his ability to do his job, even though he was the greatest of all spiritual leaders.  If Moshe Rabbenu himself had to recognize his limits, how much more so do we need to avoid overfunctioning.  We must learn from the example of our greatest teacher-to accept help, to resist trying to do it all, to recognize that none of us is indispensable.  In our parshah, Moshe and B’nei Yisrael encounter God-and Moshe realizes that unlike God, he has limitations, as do we all.  May we always keep that in our awareness.  Shabbat Shalom.